


Gotcha.

by until_the_earth_is_free



Series: The Littlest Ships That Could (Hannibal Edition) [5]
Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Angst, Episode: s02e13 Mizumono, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2014-07-09
Packaged: 2018-02-08 04:54:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1927371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/until_the_earth_is_free/pseuds/until_the_earth_is_free
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beverly's ghost is trapped in Hannibal's house.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gotcha.

**Author's Note:**

> Beta-read by the lovely and fabulous [Katie](http://www.wentz.co.vu) on tumblr!

 

 

 

 

 

Beverly was trapped.

An optimist even after watching someone she had considered her friend, or at least a friendly acquaintance, slice up her remains with a sliding mitre saw and eat her kidney, she reasoned that, if she was going to be imprisoned somewhere for the rest of eternity, at least Hannibal's house had nice furnishings. It wasn't even that she was entirely unable to leave either, although the situation presented itself to her as such.

It was just that every time she tried to step outside the door, Beverly could feel the surface of her ghostly skin start to burn and flake off like every zephyr of wind was dipping her in liquid nitrogen, harsh and acerbic, until she surrendered and re-entered the house, gasping and defeated. It wasn't much of a choice, but it was slightly better than poor Abigail's.

With having very little to do except turn off the ovens in Hannibal's kitchen while he cooked and slightly rotate each of the frames of his paintings, which was very exhausting due to her ethereal form and lack of physical muscles, Beverly spent most of her time watching Abigail. She fancied herself as a guardian angel to the poor girl, who would sit in the basement dejectedly and read the boring tomes from her captor's library. Sometimes she tried to write the Hobbs girl a message, but simply picking up the pen tired the ghost out, causing her to have to sit down, morbidly enough, in the place where she had died.

It was incredibly frustrating for Beverly to be inactive so she spent a few hours each day following Hannibal around the house, making retching noises he couldn't hear as he skimmed through his rolodex and loudly singing Britney Spears down the phone when he talked to Will.

However, when Alana Bloom started coming over Beverly found herself torn between the enthralment of being close to her and the pain of watching the doctor flirt with the beast who had killed her and the ghost settled to sitting just on the other side of the dining room door, her tears silent even to herself as she heard the woman's gentle laughter slip under the door and envelop the ghost in its sweetness.

It wasn't long before Beverly started sitting back down in the basement with Abigail while Alana stayed the night in Hannibal's bedroom, feeling as nauseated as one could without any organs.

Beverly had very rarely lost her temper when she was alive. As a ghost, she resented being so ungrateful for her previous ability to smash vases, to knock over and move furniture and to break every household object in sight at the thought of Alana, her sweet, funny, passionate Alana, with that _monster_ upstairs.

Beverly Katz was an optimist and it really said something about her situation when even she thought it all had gone to Hell.

~O~

"I'm so sorry," Abigail whispered, darkness shrouding her trembling face as she stepped forward.

Oh God, no.

Beverly plunged herself in between Alana and the crying girl moving towards her, but she knew it was hopeless even before she felt Abigail's hands pierce right through her and push Alana, still too shocked to move, out the window in a shattering cascade of glass and water.

Alana Bloom was not beautiful as she fell. There was no beauty in this, nothing majestic about this moment, only a buzz in Beverly's ears that was escalating into a scream that only she could hear.

"Alana!"

Beverly could barely feel her skin blistering as she leant over her fallen friend. She was only distantly aware that she had fallen with her, followed her without a consideration of the consequences, consequences that were now causing her skin to peel and her vision seem lighter with the pain.

"Alana!"

But the fallen woman could not hear her ghostly voice and she could not feel the tender, faint hand brush her cheek softly.

"It's okay," Beverly whispered, and every raindrop felt like boiling oil corroding her skin.

"Beverly?" Alana choked out, her eyes glistening and her gaze unfocussed.

The ghost felt her heart swell with astonishment and terror, before she saw a shadow over her and felt a jacket slide through her body and cover the dying woman. Without turning her eyes from Alana, lest by loss of concentration she could lose her forever, Beverly knew that it was Will's. She couldn't even bring herself to worry about his fate when there was something so much more important at stake.

"I'm here," Beverly whispered back, begging her words to be heard over the rift between herself and the living.

"Beverly..." Alana slurred, her eyelids drooping now, and her head lolling to face the ghost, who was now also lying down from the pain of leaving the house for so long and was blinking from the brightness clouding her vision.

"Hey, Alana," Beverly replied, with a weak smile, one which, with a clench in her gut, she saw Alana return.

"I'm glad you're here," Alana mumbled, her eyes completely closed now as she leant into Beverly's touch.

"Me too."

Beverly had never been a particularly religious person. Her agnosticism had taken quite a severe battering after she had discovered this afterlife, but, if she was ever going to believe that she had a purpose in this world, before or after her death, she would have believed it was to lie there next to Alana Bloom in the gently tapping rain.

Beverly could feel Alana's breath getting shorter now as her eidolic form was eroded from her and the world became so bright she was unable to do anything other than squint.

"I'm scared," said Alana, her voice low and crackly.

"Don't be," Beverly replied, clenching Alana in a fierce hug even as she felt her ghostly body being snatched from her and her mind being sucked away into a lighter place. "I've gotcha."

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to work on my other fics too, I swear!
> 
> [and here is the podfic!](https://soundcloud.com/hotdadwillgraham/kabloom)


End file.
